Doctor in the House

[a_mere_child]

[immediately following this]

The door opens onto a dark corridor. It's not a corridor that's supposed to be dark, but the overhead fluorescent lights aren't working just now. The walls and carpet are old, but surprisingly clean. There's an odd hitch in one's center of gravity as one walks through; the floor at Milliways is level, but here the

Comments

[stealth_bandage]

Arcade ducks into the corridor, carefully glancing this way and that before straightening up. "Thanks for the warning," he says. "This doesn't look too bad so far."

[stealth_bandage]

"Hm. Well, it's definitely swollen," says Arcade, "but I'm not seeing the kind of swelling I'd expect from a fracture. Still nasty, though. Can you lean back enough to let me prop it up on something while I examine it further? Regardless of the injury you're going to need to elevate it."

[smelltheashes]

The man nods and carefully leans back, bracing himself on his elbows. Judging by his grimace, he probably has some bruises on his arms and/or ribcage as well.

[stealth_bandage]

And Arcade will get to those shortly. "First things first," he says in the meantime. "It doesn't matter whether this is broken, strained, or just internally injured. I'm going to have to immobilize it as best I can with the supplies on hand, as far as the joint above and below the injury. Looks like that'll be your ankle and your knee, unless there's pain further up that I don't know about."

[smelltheashes]

The man shakes his head, mutely.

[stealth_bandage]

"Good. Femur injuries take- well, I don't have the equipment for that, let's just put it that way," says Arcade, who'd been about to mention stimpaks and only just stopped himself. As he starts looking for anything he can use as makeshift splints and anything he can tie the splint on with he adds, "Anything bleeding, by the way?"

[smelltheashes]

Another headshake. "Got a scrape on my arm but it stopped bleeding pretty fast," he says. "Wasn't even worth using bug juice on."

[stealth_bandage]

"Bug- oh, right," says Arcade, shaking his head. "Sorry. I prefer working without the stuff where I can."

Mostly because he has no clue what the man is talking about.

"Easier on the supplies. All right, let's get your leg padded up here, and then I'm going to tie these on for you. It'll be awkward, but better than letting it flop around loose."

[smelltheashes]

"How long is this gonna take?"

[stealth_bandage]

"Not very. I do this kind of thing all the time," Arcade says, and indeed he's used to patching up people who can't or won't pay for stimpaks. "Hold still a little longer so I can get two more ties in place. The less it moves now, the less it'll hurt later when they get to fix it properly."

[smelltheashes]

"This won't fix it??" He sounds incredibly disappointed.

[stealth_bandage]

"Afraid not. This is to hold it still and minimize the damage," says Arcade. "Without the right medicinal compounds you're going to have to wait for it to heal on its own. Keep your weight off it as much as possible, keep it elevated when it's not in use if you can possibly manage it, and if you somehow manage to have access to ice, which I doubt, apply cold to the swollen area regularly to keep the inflammation down."

[smelltheashes]

"How long is it gonna take to heal up?"

[stealth_bandage]

"If it's just a sprain, a few weeks," says Arcade. "If it's just a very bad bruise, a week or two. If you did break it, six weeks. Believe me, if I had the means to speed up the process I would, but those are pretty thin on the ground around here."

[smelltheashes]

"Tell me about it," the man grumbles. "Fuckin' spiders and lizards and God knows what else, you'd think antlions could take care of 'em but no-o-o-o..."

[stealth_bandage]

"In my experience the big things seldom seem to be either willing or able to wipe out the smaller annoyances," says Arcade. "Wouldn't surprise me if that were the case here. All right, I'm done with your leg. Want me to look at anything else while I'm here?"